Have you noticed how many drivers would benefit from a refresher course in driver’s education? How some of these folks get a license and keep a license is beyond me.
Several years ago, my mom was riding with her sister when they approached an intersection with a green light. Ruby came to a complete stop in Macon traffic.
“Ruby, why are we stopping? The light’s green,” my mom said.
Ruby replied, “Well, it’s about to turn red.” And a few seconds later, it did.
You may have heard about the lady who was pulled over on Interstate 20 for driving 20 mph. As the officer approached the car, he noticed four senior adult ladies in the car, two in the front and three in the back. The passengers were wide-eyed and white as ghosts.
The driver, obviously confused, said, “Officer, I was going the speed limit. What’s the problem?”
“Ma’am,” the officer explained, “you weren’t speeding, but you were driving slower than the posted slow limit and were endangering other drivers.”
“Sir, I was going the posted speed limit of 20 miles per hour. I don’t understand.”
The officer realized the lady’s confusion and patiently stated, “Ma’am, 20 is the interstate number. This is I-20. The speed limit on this stretch is 55 mph. The lady was embarrassed and thanked the officer for his help.
After issuing a warning, he started to walk away, but was curious about her passengers. He returned, looked in the back seat, and asked, “Are you folks okay? You seem really shook up.”
The driver replied, “Oh, they’ll be okay in a minute. We just got off of highway 138.”
The round-about at Grady Avenue and Beauregard Boulevard opened Aug. 5, and it’s been interesting to observe drivers using to the new circle. I go through that intersection at least twice daily, and it’s obvious some folks don’t know the meaning of “yield.”
On two occasions recently, I approached the circle going south and a car going east blew through the yield sign, even though I was already in the loop and approaching them. One of the drivers kept moving slowly as she watched another car entering the loop going north, but she never looked left to see me already in the circle. She pulled out in front of me while staring down the driver to her right.
Another time, a driver approaching from the west stopped at her yield sign and looked both ways. Signage and the word “yield” boldly painted across each entrance to the circle clearly communicates the expectation, but apparently drivers have forgotten what yield means.
Regarding the roundabout, cars already in the roundabout have the right-of-way, and yielding means allowing them to proceed before you proceed.
I wonder if we remember what it means to yield to God? Spiritually speaking, yield means that we recognize that God has the right-away and that we allow Him to call the shots in our lives. Yielding has to do with surrendering our will to God’s will and being obedient. It means that we rely totally on Him and not ourselves. One person said yield means to say “yes in every little detail.” That is, say yes to God.
When we yield, we’re saying, “Not my will, God, but yours.” We move from self-centeredness to God-centeredness and learn to trust and depend on Him day by day. Then we can relax.
As I Peter 5:8 reads, “casting all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.” When we yield, we no longer have the pressure of controlling everything and having to have everything go our way. We let go and let God take care of things. He’s God, and we’re not. He can handle what we can’t.
Back to our roundabout, amazingly, the Fayetteville Police Department reports only one rear-end collision in the roundabout since Aug. 5 and no citations issued for failure to yield. I wonder if God would cite us for failure to yield?
Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Ga. The church family gathers at 352 McDonough Road and invites you to join them this Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m. Please put their Fall Festival on your calendar for Oct. 31, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Visit them on the web at www.mcdonoughroad.org.
